8.2. Regulatory Requirements

The hazardous level of materials in waste generated from water treatment process generally depends on the volume of the material extracted from raw water, and the attention needs to be paid to the lowest acceptable presence of a substance per volume of treatment. This lowest level is mostly defined by local/international laws-regulations and standards. To comply with the legal requirements and to avoid health and environmental impacts, knowledge of the lowest acceptable levels of substances in treatment waste has the utmost importance.The most common pollutants regulated in general permits include aluminum, iron, manganese, pH, settleable solids, total residual chlorine (TRC), and total suspended solids (TSS). Limits of chlorides and total dissolved solids (TDS) may be required for membrane desalination and ion exchange plants.To comply with the legal requirements, the below actions can be taken;

• Provide comprehensive and timely information on investigations into exceedances of the parametric values.
• Implement an optimisation programme for chemical dosing and review/upgrade of chemical dosing processes in supplies in order to reduce trihalomethanes and aluminium exceedances.
• Meet the disinfection criteria.
• Implement adequate out of hours response backed up by suitable, real-time monitoring of process parameters and response to alarms
• Deliver resilient treatment plants able to cope with severe weather and changes in the nature of raw water sources.
• Develop and implement National Drinking Water Incident Response Plans to cover emergency situations.
• Develop a structure for minimum qualification, training and experience standards for water service employees in key operations positions (for example supervisors and plant operators).
• Implement measures to improve quality and consistency of management and operation of water supplies.
• Improve communications between local authority personnel on the management and operation of public supplies.